Often, as students wrap up their high school years, they don't have a clear idea of what career path they want to follow. No one could blame them for that. How can you settle on what you'll do for the rest of your life when you've yet to properly experience life? And besides, they have their minds full of Australian Tertiary Assessment Ratings (ATAR) exams. They don't have time to worry about things years down the road; today is trying enough.
Some high schoolers do have a career goal in mind, though. Those who want to work in medicine sit the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT). That way, they can get a jump into their medical and dental degree studies as soon as they enter university. They will not need to also sit the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT) come time to enrol in their Master's degree university courses.
If you're one such student, good on you. If you're not, also good on you. As long as you keep learning and come to a decision at some point before your university prints your Bachelor's degree.
Students across Australia choosing to further their studies in medicine should register to sit the GAMSAT during their last year as an undergraduate. It doesn't matter what you majored in. As long as you've nearly completed a full course of study (with an acceptable grade-point average), you qualify for the GAMSAT.
That's when the intensive studies begin. You need to brush up on your high school physics and undergraduate chemistry and biology. You'll have to do a lot of reading and get really good at writing. And, most importantly, you need to know what to expect going into the exam. That's why so many students look for help with GAMSAT preparation. Have you started your search already?
GAMSAT Preparation Courses
You may be lucky. You may have a teacher or student advisor to point you toward top GAMSAT classes and other revision courses. But maybe they weren't exceedingly generous with the information. Perhaps they only told you to visit the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) website. That's the only place you can get official GAMSAT revision materials from.
So what do you do? The same thing everyone does when they want to know something: ask your favourite web browser. A quick online search for 'top GAMSAT preparation' yields a trove of hits. Now you only have to comb through them all to find the resource(s) that suit your needs and budget. Most importantly, your budget.
Because while top GAMSAT preparation courses may be comprehensive, they don't come cheap. Some of those ventures offer tiered pricing. A bare-bones curriculum might be just a few hundred dollars; a full study package runs in the thousands. On one hand, that's great. You get to select the level of service you need and can afford. The only trouble with that is how do you know what you need?
GradReady is Australia's one-stop shop for mastering GAMSAT concepts. They maintain a free blog and an extensive Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. The GradReady website is well laid-out; you can find whatever information you're looking for with little trouble.
You may first want to visit their GAMSAT Courses page, just to get an idea of what they have to offer and how much it will cost. All of the price bands offer video and e-learning. The lower-priced tiers include a weekly check-in session, just to see how the class is doing with their studies. The higher-priced courses promise everything from mock exams to one-on-one private tutoring sessions.
The Institute of Medical Education follows (IME) roughly the same structure as GradReady does. Tiered lessons based on need and price. The higher the fees, the more you have access to. IME is rather upfront about its genesis; a group of medical personnel put their course together. GradReady got its start with a group of doctors in Melbourne who found existing GAMSAT courses far too elaborate.
GAMSAT Tutoring Perth
You may, of course, avail yourself of either GradReady, IME or the third big name in Australia's GAMSAT preparation, Gold Standard GAMSAT. Theirs is a blended learning format. Some sessions are conducted online, either with a pre-recorded video or live, with an instructor. And they too present students with a choice of study plans, each priced according to what's on offer.
But you might need only one or two aspects of the more costly program. Why should you have to pay for maths or science courses you don't need or have the time for? That's why many GAMSAT students prefer learning these concepts with a private GAMSAT tutor.
Typically, when you contact a private tutor for, say, science lessons, they'll ask you a series of questions. Those range from "Are you studying chemistry, biology or physics?" to "Do you also need help with maths?" The whole process is rather like peeling an onion. They'll keep asking questions until they get to the heart of the onion. Together, you will proceed from there.
Interviewing a GAMSAT tutor doesn't work like that because revising for GAMSAT is not an academic exercise. True, there are academic features, like chemistry and physics. But engaging a GAMSAT tutor isn't a case of shopping around for any tutor who will get the job done.
Any GAMSAT tutor, be they in Perth or Sydney, must have sat and passed the GAMSAT. Their tutor profile should display their scores, preferably by component or section. And they should have some experience teaching GAMSAT concepts.
You might think that because the exam includes science questions, a top science tutor will do. Such tutors may certainly help you understand chemistry, biology and physics better. But they don't know how the GAMSAT tests in those disciplines. For instance, the exam features biology graph analyses. The average tutor may not have the teaching experience to help you master that skill. And they might not know where to find such resources.
Finding a GAMSAT Tutor Perth
So, now you know. You need a top GAMSAT tutor who has sat the exam, scored well on it and has teaching experience. With those checkboxes in place, it's time to search for the top tutors to suit your needs and budget.
You might ask around your university campus. Maybe query your teachers if you think they might know of one. You'll probably have better luck with the student union, your department head or even the university library bulletin board.
Do you know about the University Tutor website? There, you'll find listings for private tutors and companies teaching GAMSAT concepts. You only need to input 'GAMSAT' and choose Perth from the location window. You should select 'in person' from the next pull-down menu and you're ready to go.
These tutorials may (or may not) address your needs. We took a quick skim through the page and found many talented tutors teaching a variety of GAMSAT-related subjects. We did not see any price-per-hour listings or student testimonials. Shouldn't that be standard for GAMSAT tutoring, whether in Adelaide or Perth?
Superprof GAMSAT Tutor Perth
That's the kind of information you'll find on every Superprof GAMSAT tutor's profile. At a glance, you'll be able to see if tutors give lessons online and/or in person. You'll know their costs upfront, including any discounts they may offer. For instance, both of Superprof's Perth GAMSAT tutors offer their first lesson free.
You'll also see how many students the tutors have taught and how many years they've been teaching. Tutors' profile pages are set up so that the most important information is visible straight away. That helps you make a quick preliminary decision about which tutors' profiles to investigate further.
These days, with all the technology at our disposal, you may enjoy a greater selection of top tutors online. Considering how specialised GAMSAT tuition has to be, you shouldn't have to settle for tutors immediately available to you in Perth. You may video conference with a GAMSAT tutor in Brisbane, for instance, or anywhere else across Australia.
Remember that the most critical aspects of your exam are not academic. The GAMSAT is more about how you manage and communicate information than recalling and using learned knowledge. So a video conference once a week, to talk over exam strategy and practice interview questions would comprise a large part of your tuition.
As for those academic components, the chemistry, biology and physics questions... They can be addressed the same way school students did their work during the pandemic lockdowns. Online tutors know all the top apps and learning platforms; they'll be happy to clue you into a few.
Finding the revision help you need is crucial to getting good exam results. You can choose a weekly video conference with your online GAMSAT tutor or, if you prefer, in-person study sessions. Just make sure that the tutors you interview have the three necessary qualifications. Namely that they've sat and passed GAMSAT and that they have experience teaching exam-related concepts.
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